Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 321 



we passed in the west of Ross- shire was magnificent ; and in fine 

 weather, if ever such shall occur in that district, it may occasion 

 less disappointment, botanically, than we experienced. The disap- 

 pearance of the forests from this and a great part of the Highlands 

 of IScotland is a phaenomenon which I cannot account for. Certainly 

 it is not a change of climate, for in many districts the forests have 

 perpetuated themselves by their oM'n seedlings ; and even where they 

 have not, solitary seedlings of Scotch fir, birch and poplar occasion- 

 ally spring up and thrive. It could not have been that the trees were 

 cut for the purposes of the population, for the population is, and 

 always must have been, from v/ant of food, very limited. Fir is the 

 only natural agent I can think of which was capable of eifecting such 

 destruction, but the remains of the trees have no appearance of ha- 

 ving been burnt ; and I doubt whether any of my companions, after 

 our experience in a season which has parched up all of Scotland ex- 

 cept the district we were in, will believe they ever could have been 

 long enough dry to burn. 



A letter to Professor Graham from Mr. N. B. Ward, F.L.S., on 

 the introduction of the Musa Cavendisii into the Navigator Islands, 

 was read : — 



" When Mr. Williams was about to leave England in 1839 for the 

 Navigators, he was anxious to take with him some useful plants, and 

 particularly the Musa. He inquired of me whether I thought that it 

 would travel safely in one of the glazed cases, and having received 

 an answer in the affirmative, he applied to his Grace the Duke of 

 Devonshire, who kindly gave him a healthy young plant. Mr. Wil- 

 liams left England on the 11th of April 1839, and arrived at Upolu, 

 one of the Navigator Islands, at the end of the following November. 

 The Musa bore this long voyage well, and was transplanted into a 

 favourable situation soon after its arrival. In May 1840 it bore a 

 fine cluster of fruit, exceeding 300 in number, and weighing nearly 

 a hundred-weight. The parent plant then died, leaving behind more 

 than thirty young ones. These were distributed to various parts of 

 the island, and in the following May (1841) when Mrs. Williams left 

 the island, all of these were in a fructiferous state, and producing 

 numerous ofF-sets. Supposing the plants to continue to increase in the 

 same ratio, there will be in the ensuing May (of 1 843) more than 

 800,000 of them, and as the son of Mr. WiUiams is established as a 

 merchant at Upolu, is owner of two vessels constantly employed in 

 trading between the various islands in the South Pacific, and is more- 

 over actuated by the same benevolent disposition which was a striking 

 characteristic of his late father, there cannot be a doubt, but that, in a 

 very short time, they will be common in all the islands. To estimate 

 the importance of the introduction of this plant, we must bear in 

 mind the great quantity of nutritious food furnished by the Banana. 

 Humboldt has told us that he was never wearied with astonishment 

 at the smallness of the portion of soil, which, in Mexico and the ad- 

 joining provinces, would yield sustenance to a family for a year, and 

 that the same extent of ground, which in wheat would maintain only 

 two persons, would yield sustenance under the Banana to fifty, al- 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xi. Y 



